Spot Gold scaled a fresh 1-month peak of $2,680.42 per troy ounce on Friday, as investors awaited the key US Non-Farm Payrolls report later in the day for more insight into macroeconomic conditions and the Fed’s future interest rate path.
Employers in all sectors of the US economy, excluding farming, probably added 160,000 job positions in December, according to market consensus, following a job growth of 227,000 in November. This way, total payroll growth for 2024 would be brought to 2.144 million, or the lowest since the pandemic year of 2020.
“We expect gold to drop a little in case the non-farm payroll report comes on a higher side,” Jigar Trivedi, senior analyst at Reliance Securities, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
“Gold found support after a weaker-than-expected private employment report for December reinforced the notion that the Fed may need to adopt a less cautious approach to rate cuts.”
Markets are now pricing the first Federal Reserve rate cut for 2025 in either May or June.
Spot Gold was last edging up 0.34% to trade at $2,679.75 per troy ounce.
Gold Futures for delivery in February were gaining 0.56% on the day to trade at $2,705.86 per troy ounce.
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